Dream of Desire
by Jedi Jelsa777
Summary: Natsu has a dream that Lucy witnesses, what is it?


Natsu closed his eyes as the wind rushed by his face, lifting his arms in the air as he laughed with pure joy. Nothing beat riding on the back of his father, not even being carried by Happy. The blue cat's own laugh joined his from his position in front of Natsu. Igneel had chuckled upon meeting the little blue Exceed, surprised that Natsu hadn't accidentally killed him somehow, earning a "Hey" from his son at the implication. Behind Natsu, Lucy's laughter joined her two friends, though her eyes were open. Never in her wildest dreams would she have thought that she ever would be riding a dragon!

The day was spent in great joy and happiness, but as the sun was setting, Igneel finally set down on the ground. After the three friends slid and jumped off his back, he turned to them and said "It's time for you to wake up Natsu." Natsu's eyes filled with tears as he said "But I don't want to let you go." Igneel chuckled and said "You don't have to let me go, I'll always be with you, right here." He pointed at Natsu's heart as he spoke.

"It's not the same! I wanted to show you so much, tell you so much. I just wanted to sleep against your scales again, I wanted us to be a family again!" Natsu yelled, tears pouring from his eyes, barely registering the hands of comfort on him from Happy and Lucy. "Don't you think I wanted that too?" Igneel asked, pain in his voice, "I wanted to wrap my neck around you in a hug, to hear all about the adventures you had had since I last was with you. Sometimes what we want, no matter how good it is, just doesn't come to pass."

Natsu shook off his friends' hands and rushed to his father, hugging his leg tight as the tears fell. Igneel wrapped his neck around him and said "I love you Natsu, more then you will ever know." "And I love you Dad." Natsu replied through his tears as best he could. With those words, the dream world faded away.

XXX

Lucy woke up with tears running down her face. Natsu's dream, somehow she had witnessed it. As she sat up in bed, a rustling sound could be heard at the window and soon the pink haired boy, carrying a still sleeping Happy, climbed through it. "Luce, you awake?" he asked. "Yeah, everything okay?" Lucy asked. Natsu tried to pretend to be cheery as he answered "Yeah, it was just a bit drafty at our place and I didn't want Happy catching a cold."

Lucy didn't say anything about witnessing the dream, instead she rolled out of bed and told him "Why don't you guys take my bed then? I just had a brainstorm for a story idea and I want to write it down before I forget, it will probably be morning before I'm ready for bed again and even if I am ready before then I can just crash on my couch." Natsu looked surprised as he asked "Are you sure that's okay with you?"

He had once told Lucy that her scent calmed him so she hoped that by sleeping in her bed he would be able to go back to sleep. "Yeah, don't worry about it this time." Natsu gave her a half grin before climbing into the bed she had just vacated, pulling Happy under the covers with him. He closed his eyes as he gripped his scarf, his breathing soon evening out and the soft snores as he finally succumbed to sleep once again. Lucy smiled before making her way over to her desk.

XXX

Natsu woke slowly at first, before startling awake the next morning. He didn't remember coming to Lucy's apartment the night before at first, but the memory soon returned. He climbed out of her bed, trying his best not to wake Happy and soon realized Lucy wasn't at home. He saw a paper with his name on it on her desk and so he picked it up. "Natsu, I stepped out for a bit, but I'll be back as soon as I can. Make yourself at home until then, just try not to break anything or eat me out of house and home." He was surprised that she wasn't there, but moved to her kitchen to make him and Happy some breakfast.

XXX

Four days. It had been four days since Natsu had woken up and found Lucy had already left her apartment. Where could she be? He hadn't felt right staying there after one more night at her place, so he had returned to his own home the next day. On the way there he had stopped at the guild and found that Lucy hadn't taken a job and nobody else had seen her since the day before he had woken up to her gone. He was really starting to worry about her.

As he climbed out of his hammock, there was a knock at the door. He went to answer it and found Lucy standing there. "Lucy, you're okay!" he said as he pulled her into a tight hug. He had been so worried he had lost her too. It took him a minute to realize she wasn't alone. Gajeel, Levy, Wendy, Romeo, Panther Lily and Carla were all behind her. "What are you guys doing here?" Natsu asked as he released Lucy from her hug.

"I got them to come with me and we have to hurry to the train station." Lucy answered, causing all three Dragon Slayers present to turn green. "Don't worry we're not riding it, we're meeting someone there." Lucy said comfortingly, mainly for Wendy's sake, "Come on, we don't want to be late."

When they got down there, the train was just pulling in and everyone but Lucy was surprised to see Yukino, Sting, Lector, Frosch, Rogue and Minerva all exit the train and make their way to the group. "We came as quickly as we could once I got your message Lucy, what's up?" asked Yukino. At the confused look of those with her, Lucy said "I sent a message through the Spirit World to Yukino to have her and the others meet us. No time to explain though, come on."

Lucy took off running and the others rushed to catch up. They passed Erza, Jellal, Gray and Juvia on the way through the town and Lucy invited them to come with them as well. The Fairy Tail members were surprised to see Lucy, in fact they were on their way to a meeting about setting up a search party for her, but they followed her eagerly, asking where they were going and getting no answers like the others.

Soon they were well outside of town and she stopped just before cresting a hill. "I think the Dragon Slayers should go first, just in case." Lucy said, earning raised eyebrows and looks of confusion, but Natsu took the first steps towards the top of the hill followed closely by the others. Once they had a few feet of space between them and the Slayers, Lucy motioned the others to join her in following them.

As they reached the top of the hill, all of the Dragon Slayers stopped dead in their tracks. There, in the valley below, stood Igneel, Metalicana, Grandeeney, Weisslogia and Skiadrum! Tears ran down all of their eyes as Natsu whispered "Is it really you this time?" Lucy and the others had just reached them and some of them put their hands over their mouths in shock, some let their jaw hang open and a few had happy tears for their special Slayer running down their faces.

Igneel chuckled and said "Why don't you come here and find out." This seemed to break the Dragon Slayers out of their trance and each went running to their parent. Lucy and the others followed at a walk, giving the Slayers time to reconnect with their parents. Finally Wendy released her mother's face as she asked, with tears still running down her face "I don't understand, how are you here?" "It was thanks to your blond friend over there."

All the Slayers stopped and stared at Lucy as Gajeel asked "How did you do this Lucy?" Lucy blushed and answered "Well, I witnessed Natsu's dream where he saw Igneel and it made me sad to see how broken he was about Igneel not being there." Natsu blushed, but none of the other Slayers teased him, for all of them had had similar dreams at one time or another. "I wanted to do something about it if I could, so I went to the Spirit World and spoke to the Celestial Spirit King." Lucy continued.

"How did you get there?" interrupted Rogue. "I summoned Loke and he took me." Lucy answered, venturing on with her story "The Celestial Spirit King was moved by what the dragons did and felt it wrong that their time was over so quickly. He has remembered more about the time we all helped him and the other Spirits, so he said he wanted to return the favor. It took a little doing, but we were able to retrace time, find the moment where each started to fade away and recaptured their essence, much like Mystogan had done when Makarov's power was stolen by Phantom Lord."

"You were able to do that?!" Sting replied, Lucy nodded and said "It wasn't just their magic that we had to capture, it was everything about them as well. That was how the Celestial Spirit King was able to, in easy terms, reassemble them. They are alive now as they were when you were kids, their powers are at max strength for them currently and they won't fade away again." She was suddenly almost knocked over as all the Slayers hugged her in thanks.

Erza spoke up from where she and the other three they had picked up along the way were standing, "I think you all want to spend some time with the dragons and introduce them to your partners and such, we'll head back to the Guild Hall and let them know Lucy is okay, we'll let you tell them your news yourselves." Everyone staying behind waved goodbye and Lucy watched in contentment as all the Dragon Slayers started introducing their parents to their Exceeds and friends.

Suddenly Natsu took her by the arm and was leading her to Igneel as he said "Come on Lucy, Igneel said he wants to give us a ride." Lucy nodded and said "Okay." As they drew closer Igneel said "Ah, so this the girl who has stolen my son's heart, I'm not surprised considering how kind you are." Lucy blushed as she said "Oh we're just friends." Natsu's eyes looked at his father's and they said "Not for too much longer if I have anything to say about it."

It was dropped for now as everyone climbed on the dragons, the Saber Tooth members calling out their goodbyes and thanks as they decided to head off to their guild to introduce Skiadrum and Weisslogia to their guild mates. Wendy, Romeo, Carla and Grandeeney would be flying to see Shelia and the rest of Lamia Scale, whom Wendy had gotten close to when she had stayed with them for the year Fairy Tail was disbanded. Metallica wanted to see Anna again and so Gajeel, Levy and Panther Lily would be making a quick visit to see her. The three Fairy Tail members promised to wait until all three of them could tell their guild together about their parents' return.

As everyone flew off in different directions, Igneel took them on a flight to show where he had met Zeref and Natsu for the first time. Just like in Natsu's dream, there was lots of laughter, but unlike it his father wouldn't be leaving in a permanent way at the end of the flight.


End file.
